Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-11-13
A PLACER GOLD NINE.
A New Camp at the
Duarte.
THE "DRY-wASHER."
A Company Formed to Work an
Old Los Angeles Gold Field by
a New Process.

for some weeks past there has been
= good deal of talk in certain circles
as to the discovery of some very rich
placer mines, but the parties inter-
ested, kept their secret well until
of the HERALD learned
of the fact and started out to find
out all about it. The first person
found was M. I. Brewer, the real es-
tate dealer, at No. 6 Fort street. After
himself the scribe told
him what he had heard, on which
Mr.. Brewer consented to tell him all
about it. He said: ''This mine is a
placer mine, is situated on what is
known as the Buena Vista ranch in
the Duarte, about Is miles from Los
Angeles, and owned by F. A. and W.
w. Bliss"
Mr.. Brewer was the first to take
hand in developing this mine, and
took into his confidence five other
gentlemen. After talking matters
over they concluded to form COM
pany composed of the following
we'll known people: M. I. Brewer,
J. B. Freeman, Robt. Farrell and
Paul Harrington, all of Los Angeles,
and f. A. and w. w. Bliss, OF the
Duarte. After consultation of what
course would be pursued, it was de-
cided to go and look over the ground.
So without further DELAY the interested
parties went out, looked the place
over, and found that there was good
prospect of gold, but as water is sup
posed to be necessary for placer mining
purposes they were at a loss as to
what course to pursue; but finally 1t
was decided to test some of the dirt.
Acting on this, they brought a guam
tity of the dirt home and panned it
out. and were most agreeably sur
Drised to find that the dirt
contained a good amount OF gold.
This gave them great encouragement,
and caused them to further investi-
gate the matter, and on again visiting
their possessions, they began to think
Of some method by which they may
work the mine without water. They
thought of number OF methods, and
on inquiry they heard of a new
method in the shape of dry
washer invented in this city.
After looking this matter up they
found that the machine is being man.
ufactured by Mr.. J. B. Freeman, at
6O4 South Spring street. There they
found machine that is called Free
mans Success Gold Separator. After
hearing the machine described and
what was claimed for it, it was
decided to give it a test.
They had hauled to town load of
dirt which weighed 1882 pounds.
This was run through the machine,
and out of this there was taken over
81. This dirt was washed out in just
four minutes, after which it was
again run through, but without
getting the slightest COLOR" Not
yet being satisfied, there were
taken about ten pans-full of this same
dirt and washed in water with the
greatest care, but at the end not sin
gle "color" could be found in the pan.
This was really great surprise to
at least one OF the parties,
rs he, being a forty-niner, and an old
miner, he supposed nothing but
water would separate gold from di t,
but the result of this test was that one
Of the machines was bought. The
interested parties now concluded
to take the machine out to
the mine and make a final
test, at which the HERALD representa-
tive was invited to be present, and he
gladly assented. So on an appoin ed
day there might have been seen four
amateur miners heading for the
new gold fields at the Duarte.
Arriving on the ground place
was cleared of the brush and
rocks, big enough for the machine to
stand, after which work began in
good earnest and the machine started
with three men feeding it, one man
turning it. The capacity of the ma
chine is about eighty to a hundred
tons of dirt per day, but to run it to
it's full capacity it will require about
eight men to shovel dirt into it.
This being a mere test of the machine
and the dirt, they did not run more
than about twelve tons through in the
first half day, but at the cleanup at
At noon there were taken out
some ounces of fine -four
gold. After dinner the machine
was again tested on some of the dirt
that had already been through, but as
before there could not be "color"
found. After this test work was stop
ped that a further survey might be
made. After examining large num-
Der of places good prospects were
found in all directions. Next
morning resuming operations in which
the HERALD man took part, every
thing was set in motion. and after a
run of about four and half hours an
other cleanup was made, which re-
suited in another big lot OF gold dust.
In this last lot there was some
pieces that weighed as high as 40
cents, but mostly what is called flour
gold was found. The scribe being
still in doubt, and to settle the fact in
his own mind as to the working of
the machine, he brought a barley
sack full to the house and PANIED
it out with water, but at the end
he could not find single color" but
ne got some dirt that had not been
washed, and in the first painful was
rewarded by finding twenty
three ''colors." This result
being good enough, it pleased
all hands - even the scribe =
and what will please a newspaper
man will please the balance Of the
world. The machine is turned with a
crank, and having double bellows
with large amount of comp essed
mir, the air acting instead of water.
And it is 80 constructed that the
amount of air is evenly distributed
under the apron on which all
dirt must fall, the dirt being
blown out, leaving the gold
in what is called the riffles-in other
words, little drawer separated into
small compartments on the same
as printers case. This
case has on the bottom fine mesh
Of wire such as will hold the
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